Why should you have routine maintenance performed on your landscape lighting?
There are multiple answers to this question of which some will be explained below.
A good majority of the people that have landscape lighting feel as long as the lights are coming on at night, everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about. There is some merit to this comment, but there are so many variables involved when it comes to landscape lighting. How many lights are installed? What type of lights and where are they installed at on the residence? Do they have a textured finish or are they made out of solid brass? Do they have LED bulbs in them or halogen bulbs, or are they an integrated LED fixture? All of these factors come into play at some time over the lifespan of your landscape lighting product.
A well-trained landscape lighting technician will notice issues that the average homeowner will not notice regarding their landscape lighting. The technician also has electrical tools that can be used to test the system for certain readings that can determine if there are voltage issues or problems with the transformer.
If a customer has lights installed in their trees, then there will be electrical wiring attached to the tree as well. Some trees grow faster than others and if the wires are not checked on some sort of regular interval of time, then eventually the tree will grow around the staple on the tree that was used to attach it and if the metal staple breaks through the rubber sheathing on the wire, then you have metal on metal and your lighting will not work correctly. I referenced a “staple” used for attaching the wires to the trees. This is how a lot of companies are attaching the wire to the tree, but Exo Design has learned of a different and easier method to use and when it does come time to lessen the tension on the wire from the tree growth, the time it takes to do this is very minimal, which saves the customer time in labor cost.
Some other common issues that arise are that the lenses of the lighting fixtures themselves become stained with hard water. This may not be a problem where you live, but in Oklahoma, it is a regular occurrence. The lenses will develop a hard-whitish colored film that if not caught early enough, has to be scraped off with a razor blade or other device, because it distorts the output of the light. If the customer has their yard serviced by a landscaping company, then sometimes the fixtures located in the beds can be covered up by mulch accidentally or by dirt itself. We have even seen lights installed in the grass become grown over with grass when the yard has been reseeded or had new sod installed and then the light totally disappears.
There are many issues that can arise when your landscape lighting system is not checked on some sort of regular intervals. Do not let your hard-earned money that you paid for your beautiful landscape lighting go to waste by not maintaining your lighting afterwards.
Please contact Exo Design today to learn more about our maintenance services we can provide!